14 October 2023

Another intersection point!!

So, there I was … in Virgin Atlantic Lounge after a fairly hectic 36 hours, all ready to jump the pond back when I got a message from Delta that the flight is boarding. That could not be true. The flight was two hours later. While on a call with somebody in India, I started walking to the entrance of the lounge where the display for flight information was.

Turns out Delta meant to say that a gate as been assigned. The flight would not be ready to board for quite some time.

But for that mistake from Delta, I would not have walked to the display boards and would not have heard somebody calling my name out! Turned around and there was Utsav!! We had started working together when I moved to Atlanta in 2007.

Coming to think of it, that erroneous message and the fact that his flight to JFK was delayed for three hours is what made both of us get to the display boards to check status.

He was on his way back from India. I was heading home from London. He was going to JFK and I was going to Atlanta. A message in error. A delayed flight.

Equals two old friends get to meet!!

Serendipity is such a beautiful thing!

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14 October 2023

Scare of my life

How irritating is it when the phone rings while you are in the middle of an important meeting?

I had just landed in London after a near sleepless night and was in the middle of some serious discussions with the Board when the table vibrated slightly. Everybody glanced at their phones or fished them out of their pockets. I noticed that it was my phone and it said “No Caller Id”. Well, one more of those scam calls, I concluded. Pressed the power button to cancel the call, looked at the beautiful River Thames in front and proceeded with my spiel.

Within 5 seconds, the phone rang again. With “No Caller Id”. Fairly persistent fraudster. Canceled it yet again.

And sure enough, they called up yet again. For a moment, I had a doubt that Sharmila or the daughters might be trying to get hold of me. Excused myself and picked up the phone.

“This is Alpharetta Police Department. Am I talking to Rajib Roy?”

This was TROUBLE.

“Let me take this. It is urgent”, I told the Board members as I ran out of the room, fearing some real bad news. Visions of one of the three in an accident is what kept flashing in my mind.

“This is Rajib Roy speaking. What is going on?”

“Your car is parked in an illegal spot. You need to move it now or we will have it towed.”

That was confusing. My car is at the airport. It is in a reserved parking spot. There is no way my car is anywhere near Alpharetta.

“Where is the car?”

“On Highway 9. In front of Smokejack. We have signs all over not to park anywhere on the road due to downtown events”.

“Officer, I am in London right now. I suspect that is my wife’s doing. Let me call her”

So, I called Sharmila and sure enough she and Nikita were out and about and had the car parked where it should not have been.

I went back to the room and within a minute there was a message from Nikita that they had moved the car to a proper place.

Late in the evening after all meetings, I called up Sharmila to find out what had happened.

She explained that there indeed was a sign not to park. They saw it. It said Oct 15.

“Well, why were they disallowing cars to be parked there today? It is Oct 13th today.”

She explained herself.

Unfortunately, my phone had said “No Caller Id”. If I knew the number, I was so going to call back Alpharetta Police Department and let them know that somebody thinks it is all their fault. The “From” date should not have been written in smaller font than the “To” date!

Category: Humor, My Family, Travelogs | LEAVE A COMMENT
5 October 2023

This dog gets a lot of attention in the bars

After leading us to Truck and Tap, he promptly jumped on the window sill and settled down. While I went in to grab three drinks – the bar folks always add a glass of water for him. Some of the regulars like Braxton even walked up from their seats to chat with him.

We are now being referred to “That dog’s parents!”

In his other favorite bar, Chiringa – he is shown a little more respect and addressed by his full name!

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20 September 2023

Intersection Point in Paris!!

I got to know Melania at work in Germany – oh! some 20 years back. Ever since then, we mostly have kept up thru phone calls and Facebook posts. Of course, there are those April birthday calls every year. I have been promising Melania to visit her whenever I find myself in Paris. But in spite of all my travels, I never made it to Paris for a long long time.

Finally this time, I made it. And Melania took some precious time off from work to come and visit me. I was running between being on the stage for a panel discussion and an office dinner meeting. And she was in the middle of a crucial sales cycle. In between, though, she biked up to where I was to have coffee and catch up on our lives and old friends.

I learnt quite a bit of skiing from her. Skiing is second nature to her. I do not think I will recognize a ski blade if I saw one. The part that blew my mind was that you can ski up a slope. I am not talking about starting with a momentum from a down slope. I am talking about starting from zero and then skiing up!

We also talked about politics in France, US and India; our old days in i2 in Germany and some of our dear friends from those days. And yes, rugby, football, American football and cricket too !!

She had to leave for work soon. It felt like we did not finish our conversation fully. It only means we need to make time to visit in US or France again!

Thank you Melania for taking to effort during office time to meet me for coffee!

Category: Intersection Points, Vacations | LEAVE A COMMENT